One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism

Isaiah 61:1 - 62:3 (KJV)

10 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.

11 For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.

1 For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.

2 And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name.

3 Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.

Reading, hearing these verses from Isaiah, our Old Testament lesson for this morning, one has the sense of being set up for what is to come. And sure enough, next Sunday, January 6 is The Epiphany, when we celebrate the coming of the Magi -- we three kings of Orient --- more on that later perhaps.

We have Baptism at church this morning, a tiny boy, and we’ll baptize another little boy next Sunday morning. Baptism for us is water poured over us and the Holy Spirit coming upon us as the Church admits us to full membership and communion. My tradition, custom, for long years has been always to baptize using some water from the River Jordan, where Jesus himself was baptized. Over the years, friends visiting the Holy Land have brought me water that they themselves dipped out of the Jordan River. Anyway, we’ll do that this morning and then at least those standing round closest to the font will be sprinkled with the holy water over which we will have just said the words,

Now sanctify this water, we pray you, by the power of your
Holy Spirit, that those who here are cleansed from sin and
born again may continue for ever in the risen life of Jesus
Christ our Savior.

As drops of water hit us, some may make the sign of the cross both in acknowledgement of being touched by the holy and in remembrance of their own baptism.

TW+